The Chicken and Egg Dilemma that killed our chicken.
Three Trees Wellness started out in 2018, founded by me and Michael Blasi. It formed organically with many local holistic health practitioners. We began offering services to the public
.
For Michael and me, it began as a dream to incorporate our authentic paths with our means to a livelihood...a life immersed in and amongst wellness communities.
Michael had been in police work for twenty-eight years, but in the last few had begun craving a different sort of life. He wanted to heal from on-the-job trauma, as well as help other officers heal.
I was raised in Indonesia in a spirit based community. I struggled with culture shock and missed Indonesia to no end. I craved a life here in the USA that felt more alive. I had been in business for a couple of decades, but was not giving myself the time or intention to manage my well-being, often getting obsessed with work, followed by periods of burnout. I had grown up struggling with attention related issues, triggered by early childhood trauma from losing my mother at a young age. I had a lot of related healing to attend to.
The inception of Three Trees Wellness was deeply rooted in our personal healing journeys, and so, as neither of us are religious, we selected a name that embodied the concept of the Trinity of body, mind, and spirit - "Three Trees". Our enterprise operated from the premises of a local non-denominational spiritual organization in Marin County, California.
Here, we curated wellness and community oriented events, such as: art, movement, and nutrition therapy classes and workshops, as well as artisan and wellness fairs. We were incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to coordinate and host some remarkable events and classes, catering to the diverse needs of our community. We had plans to include wellness classes and services for police officers, veterans and eventually all first responders.
We had plans to include wellness classes and services for police officers, veterans and eventually all first responders.
But the Covid-19 Pandemic was still fresh on people's minds and many of our potential customers were not willing to risk being exposed to others in onsite classes and events. Classes were small and rent still had to be paid. We then aspired to grow an online revenue stream to help offset the difference so we could keep our onsite location. We invested in the necessary technology and included virtual classes and events. We then doubled down on digital and social media marketing and hoped to eventually grow our company (our "egg") to a critical mass that would allow our business to take off. But then disaster struck again and our beautiful little egg failed to grow in time. As a result, our "chicken" - our business, had to close.
The turn of events that killed our chicken...
Our lives took a humbling turn when Michael found himself in an impossible situation as the on-duty Sergeant during an altercation between two of his officers and a storekeeper in Tiburon, California. Michael was unsuccessful in his de-escalation efforts, and as a result, because he was the officer in charge and the Black Lives Matter community was actively criticizing the police department and the town of Tiburon, the officials chose to sacrifice Michael and the Chief of Police to appease them.
Unfortunately, our business received a negative rating from a member of the "Black Lives Matter" movement, who left commentary about Three Trees being owned by a 'police officer who harasses members of the community'.
Despite our efforts, we were unsuccessful in getting Facebook's attention to remove the comment. This placed a burden on our efforts to grow our market presence and our business, and led us to the difficult decision to close Three Trees.
The irony
Michael was accused of 'reacting' in this Tiburon case where a well-known movie star's adopted son YEMA refused to obey the law by showing Michael his ID to verify he was the owner of the store he was standing inside at 2am. Yema was a new store owner and the Police were not yet familiar with him, so they naturally wanted to see his ID. The situation was tense, and after much taunting from Yema, Michael raised his voice out of frustration. The irony is that Michael was already formulating a program for the Police to help them learn to 'respond' rather than 'react'!
The irony is that Michael was already formulating a program for the Police to help them learn to 'respond' rather than 'react'!
Michael has had a calling to help veterans and first responders for many years. He joined forces, with me and Guryan Tighe, through Three Trees Wellness and a program we developed called PARC, "Peace Awareness Response Community". This training program Michael and Guryan later successfully delivered twice to PORAC, "Police Officers Research Association of California". However, because we all had to commit to other full time jobs, we have had to put PARC on the back burner.
The DEI dilemma
Another issue that goes part and parcel to DEI issues, is the experience of just how wrong things can go when one is caught on the wrong side of this social political issue. Though we both consider ourselves culturally sensitive and pro peaceful co-existence, we now have an intimate, life-changing experience which has given us more context and understanding to just how tricky a DEI dilemma can be. The pressure on our social and political systems is real, and both good and bad change is happening as a result. People that need to be weeded out of positions of power are now getting ousted. But good people, and yes, there are good police officers out there, are also getting stuck in impossible situations, getting ousted and getting hurt.
But good people, and yes, there are good police officers out there, are also getting stuck in impossible situations, getting ousted and getting hurt.
After Michael's case went through an extensive investigation, Michael was exonerated by the city for any wrongdoing, but was not re-hired. Pension lost, etc. Yema, the accuser, went on to sue the city for 2 million US dollars. He received $150,000. Rumor has it that he has not stopped and is now suing the Federal government.
So where to go from here? Despite the challenges we've faced, we remain hopeful for the future and are excited about the new opportunities that lie ahead.
We have other plans in the works, and Michael has written a book about his experiences, which we will be publishing. We still have books on the horizon and I still have a passion for marketing wellness and wellness art.
Stay in touch by subscribing to my blog. I'll post updates here.
In the meantime, thanks for your interest and for reading this. If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback about anything, feel free to reach out to me. I value your perspective and will do my best to respond to you.
All the best,
Alicia
Comments